"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard

At least six FBI vehicles and approximately 27 officers stormed Roger Stone’s home in Fort Lauderdale. The KGB FBI agents were dressed in tactical vests with large weapons. They were wearing night vision glasses.

This is a new low for the FBI.

The Judge released Stone on a very low bond which proves the FBI raid was abusive and excessive.

On Friday, President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton threatened a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to get to the bottom of how CNN was tipped off to the raid.

TOM FITTON: Maybe a Judicial Watch FOIA will uncover will uncover how CNN found out about the Stone raid.

Maybe a @JudicialWatch FOIA will uncover how CNN found out about the Stone raid.

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An instant media darling and certainly a fresh face, newly minted Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is rattling some Democratic establishment cages. She calls herself a democratic socialist. And she has some big plans. Is the Democratic Party and Americans ready for AOC?

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The pre-dawn arrest of former Trump adviser Roger Stone in connection with the Mueller investigation has many scratching their heads over how it went down. Not only did the FBI surprise Stone at 6am Friday morning with a knock on his door – as opposed to simply notifying his attorney and letting Stone turn himself in, but CNNwas there to film the entire thing going down.

This begs the question; did the FBI tip off CNN ahead of Stone’s dramatic takedown?

Former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren certainly thought so on first take, tweeting: “CNN cameras were at the raid of Roger Stone…so FBI obviously tipped off CNN…even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN instead of trying to quietly arrest Stone;quiet arrests are more likely to be safe to the FBI and the person arrested.”

CNN cameras were at the raid of Roger Stone…so FBI obviously tipped off CNN…even if you don’t like Stone, it is curious why Mueller’s office tipped off CNN instead of trying to quietly arrest Stone;quiet arrests are more likely to be safe to the FBI and the person arrested

It’s possible this tip-off came from FBI rather than Mueller’s office, but either way, nobody should be comfortable having law enforcement engineer with media outlets the filming of someone’s arrest at their home like a reality TV circus. But it’s Roger Stone, so few will care. https://t.co/H7VvltkoCE

CNN producer David Shortell admitted that he was “waiting” outside Roger Stone’s house at 5am, an hour before FBI agents and police arrived to arrest the former Donald Trump associate. https://t.co/DzSpuOFVqz

Van Susteren, upon further reflection, acknowledged that there were others would could have tipped off CNN, including Stone himself.

Upon reflection, there are others who could have tipped off CNN …others knew, maybe even Stone suspected it and tippped them off…as an aside, if I worked for a news org and had the tip, I would have sent cameras https://t.co/aSaiBZ4LNL

Meanwhile, many are questioning the decision to conduct a “heavy raid” on Stone for lying to Congress, while others connected to the Trump campaign such as Paul Manafort have been allowed to simply turn themselves in.

Just shows me it’s all about the theatrics. I’m sure if Stone’s lawyers were notified of his arrest, he would have turned himself in. The same for Manafort. I don’t thing Shock and Awe works in these cases.

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Surrounded by hecklers shouting “lock him up,” former Trump adviser Roger Stone declared Friday after a court appearance in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that he will fight “politically motivated” charges of obstruction, false statements and witness tampering brought by special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation of alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Stone – who was arrested in a pre-dawn raid Friday morning at his home by FBI agents in tactical gear with their guns drawn – emphasized that the charges “related in no way to Russian collusion or collaboration” during the 2016 campaign.

“I am falsely accused of making false statements during my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee,” he said, calling Mueller’s probe a “two-year inquisition.”

Stone, who was released on $250,000 bail, said he found it “disturbing” that the special counsel’s office distributed a news release prior to informing his attorneys of the charges.

“At the crack of dawn, 29 FBI agents arrived at my home with 17 vehicles with their lights flashing when they simply could have contacted my attorneys, and I would have been more than willing to surrender voluntarily,” said Stone, competing with the ongoing din of heckling.

“They terrorized my wife, my dogs while I was taken to the FBI facility,” Stone said.

He said he will plead not guilty to the charges, which include allegations that he worked to obstruct the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference by denying he had records sought by the committee and persuading a witness to provide false testimony.

“I will defeat them in court,” Stone said of the seven counts. “I believe this is a politically motivated investigation.”

He inferred that, facing prison time, Mueller’s team, was pressuring him to become a witness against President Trump.

“There is no circumstance whatsoever under which I will bear false witness again the president, nor will I make up lies to ease the pressure on myself,” he said.

“I look forward to being fully vindicated.”

‘The only thing worse … ‘

Stone, who describes himself as a political showman and dirty-trickster, opened his remarks saying, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

As he made his way to the microphones he flashed the iconic “V” for victory sign of Richard Nixon. Stone, who has a Nixon tattoo on his back, began his political career working for Nixon.

Mueller’s team is accusing Stone of communicating with unnamed Trump campaign officials about the WikiLeaks release of hacked emails of Democrats during the 2016 campaign.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Trump, said Friday that the indictment “does not allege Russian collusion by Roger Stone or anyone else.”

Stocks, Yields and Crude Oil have experienced a high degree of correlation since the October highs and each looks to be experiencing a key price test at the same time!

The S&P 500, 10-year yields and Crude Oil hit highs at nearly the same time in early October at each (1). After peaking together nearly 16-weeks ago, each declined more than 15%. Counter-trend rallies starting taking place near Christmas, one month ago today. The rallies currently have each testing very important breakout tests at (2). Stocks, Yields and Crude bulls would love to see breakouts here.

Joe Friday Just The Facts– Each asset is testing a key breakout test at (2). Stock, Yields and Crude bulls would receive a negative price message if support would break at (3).

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Thousands of priests are closeted, and the Vatican’s failure to reckon with their sexuality has created a crisis for Catholicism.

Photo: Governatorato S.C.V., Direzione dei Musei, All Rights Reserved

We have no reliable figures on just how many priests in the Catholic Church are gay. The Vatican has conducted many studies on its own clergy but never on this subject. In the United States, however, where there are 37,000 priests, no independent study has found fewer than 15 percent to be gay, and some have found as many as 60 percent. The consensus in my own research over the past few months converged on around 30 to 40 percent among parish priests and considerably more than that — as many as 60 percent or higher — among religious orders like the Franciscans or the Jesuits.

This fact hangs in the air as a giant, unsustainable paradox. A church that, since 2005, bans priests with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” and officially teaches that gay men are “objectively disordered” and inherently disposed toward “intrinsic moral evil” is actually composed, in ways very few other institutions are, of gay men.

Does the Bible have anything to say about life on other planets? In this Q&A video from our 2016 National Conference, R.C. Sproul, W. Robert Godfrey, and Albert Mohler urge us not to speculate but rather to focus on the drama of redemption taking place right here.

Message us for clear, concise, and trustworthy answers to your biblical and theological questions at Ask.Ligonier.org.